Dance pad

They are good for beginners to dance games or casual use, but they have a tendency to move around and wrinkle up during gameplay (unless "modded", such as by gluing or taping them to the top of a piece of plywood or the bottom of a transparent office chair mat[1]).

Some soft pads contain stiff foam inserts of the dense or hard varieties to provide more stability and durability.

The inserts usually ship as three or six puzzle pieces (to allow for a smaller box) which fit together using a dovetail joint and slide into the dance pad, which then zips closed around the foam.

Manufacturers of hard pads include DDRgame, Cobalt Flux, L-TEK, MyMyBox, Brown Box, RedOctane (ceased production as of February 2010 due to company termination) and Naki International.

The advantages of a solid state design is that they do not require pressure to activate, eliminating moving parts that might break down and keeping dirt from getting into the mechanism.

Purchasers of home pads should be aware of the number and arrangement of active arrow panels that are required by the game(s) they want to play.

Some homebrew pads have extra features such as additional arrows (for playing Pump It Up or DDR Solo), menu switches and pushbuttons, and bars.

The most common design uses metal contacts that sandwich together when the player steps on the pad or arcade button switches but some novel ideas have been proposed such as the use of optical, pressure, vibration, or proximity sensors.

Most of the time, players will sometimes take plywood sheets, acrylic, or office chair floor protectors and staple it to their soft pads.